(see germex poetry post)

replying to germex:


This particular rhyming style is called a "limerick "


Can someone explain the limerick I'm posting below as a question in this thread?


There was a young fellow from Clyde,

Who fell in an outhouse and died.

He had a young brother,

Who fell in another,

And now they're interred side by side.

Replying to [Professor Carl]: The question is too hard for me. Anyway, I'd like to have a try. If my ans is not the correct one, Prof. Carl please give us some hint.

Morale of the story: Beware of the outhouse, don't play with outhouse.

Quoting from [Professor Carl]:
(see germex poetry post

replying to germex:

This particular rhyming style is called a "limerick "

Can someone explain the limerick I'm posting below as a question in this thread?

There was a young fellow from Clyde,

Who fell in an outhouse and died.

He had a young brother,

Who fell in another,

And now they're interred side by side.

First lead -- find out what an outhouse is.

Replying to [Professor Carl]:


I know what an outhouse is (though I don't understand why a person could go by the last name of "Outhous"; without the "e"), but I don't quite understand what you want us to do. Just explain what happened in this limmerick? Easy: both fell into the ditch below one of those little "houses" that are "deposits for feces and urins" and died a horrible death (how could it possibly be pleasant?). Now they are buried in two adjacent graves.

second lead... look for homophony

"Limerick "

A limerick is a five-line poem written with one couplet and one triplet. If a couplet is a two-line rhymed poem, then a triplet would be a three-line rhymed poem. The rhyme pattern is a…. a, b, b, a,… with lines 1, 2 and 5 containing 3 beats and rhyming, and lines 3 and 4 having two beats and rhyming. Some people say that the limerick was invented by soldiers returning from to the Irish town of Limerick in the 1700's.

Limericks are meant to be funny. They often contain hyperbole, onomatopoeia, idioms, puns, and other figurative devices. The last line of a good limerick contains the PUNCH LINE or "heart of the joke."

Nice description... figure out the punch line, then. I have to admit, that one would have to be deeper deeper in English to get it. When the limerick is heard, the joke is much the more able to be got.

Replying to [Professor Carl]:

It is a funny limerick but have deep meaning i guess, Professor.
let see the end of the line,
And now they're interred side by side.
this is the punch line as Adseaco mentioned before.
as i can recall the meaning is "doing the same foolish mistake" as the poetry saying about two brothers and "feces and urines houses". the outhouse mean something foolish, not honorable nor valuable. but no one actually died here. just an expression of "cannot return"
is it right??

Professor Carl says:

No, nobody got it yet. Remind me next week, and I will post the solution if nobody gets it by then.

Replying to [Professor Carl]:

I believe Professor you already gave a hint in the first line of the poem, CLYDE, as in Bonnie and Clyde, famouse criminals.

So the outhouse is more or less like a jail, since its out of town, and more or less like a house for the criminals.

By falling in, I think you mean that he got caugth by the police and sentenced. So did his brother, somewhere else.

But now both are sitting in Jail together.

Just guessing.

Replying to [Professor Carl]:

I forgot to mention this option,

The first brother has been possibly death sentenced, for commiting something a terrible crime, and so did his brother. Now both are have been sentenced and waiting for their end to come, in the same jail, in the jail blocks next to each other.

This can only be funny for a police officer.

germex and I had a discussion... he had earlier posted what an "outhouse" is. In our discussion, we agreed that the rest of the puzzle was too difficult, and he posted the outcome of our discussion and the solution to the problem. So the thread is itself interred, no points.